UMTravels

So — on one of the recent trips to the island, I got this big envelope in the mail from somebodies class action lawsuit about bank fees charged on overseas transactions. I have three choices. Take the minimum $25 payout, figure out how many days I was overseas in the last ten years (from February 1, 1996 to November 8, 2006) and take their guesstimate of how much a typical traveller spent (which would be in my favor since I tend to go frugal), or look at ten years of bank statements to figure out the real dollar amount of my exchanges. Talk about a task. I have my current passport in front of me, plus my old passport. Guess it’s time to start a spreadsheet of my adventures. I’ll let you know the results.

Woke up in Olympia with more money in my pocket than I started with — minus the three bottles of wine that I took to dinner at Jameson and Natalie’s Summit Lake House.

Dinner tonight is with Swanda, Swanda Mom, Swanda Sis, Helene, and myself — I’m being treated to the Brooklyn (which I love). Funny thing is that Helene still owes me two birthday dinners there and Swanda one (which this one doesn’t count against). Maybe I should just plan a week of eating there — and watch my heart explode from the calories.

Well, back to work on that damn spreadsheet. The things I do for a little pocket change.

HOLY CRAP BATMAN! After several hours of going through my passports noting all the in/out stamps — the total is 393 days out of the country. And this is shy a bunch of days since all the driving trips to Canada aren’t on there. How the hell am I going to figure THOSE out. But still, that’s over a year in the last ten years, or 10%. WOW.

Hey — I just had a thought. Since I usually stay at the WorldMark properties — they have all my old stay records online.

I’ll update you with the even more grandiose total later.

UPDATE: Add 29 days in Canada during that time frame. New Total equals 422 days out of the country in 10 years.